Potty Party!

Emily made her first successful trip to the potty on September 20, 2011! We were so proud of her! She's made one more trip since then... but in the past few days has taken greater pleasure in saying, "No!" when we ask her if she would like to go and sit on her potty than in actually using her potty. I'm totally not pushing it, because she's not even two years old yet and I know that she will learn it when she is ready. I don't know why people are in such a hurry to have their kids make these milestones! I will be sad (but relieved and glad for my wallet) when she is potty trained - don't get me wrong - but I am not going to push my 20 month old daughter to control her bladder when she's not ready to do it 100% of the time. It's more fun than anything else, really, to watch her reaction when she realizes she has actually done it! Here's a censored picture of Emily after her very first big girl potty trip!

"One year, I’d completely lost my bearings trying to follow potty training instruction

from a psychiatric expert. I was stuck on step one, which stated without irony: 

‘Before you begin, remove all stubbornness from the child’."~Mary Kay Blakely